Epson - EpiqVision™ Ultra LS500 4K via Upscaling PRO-UHD, Short Throw Laser Projector, 4000 lumens, HDR, Android TV, Sports - White

Epson - LS500 Laser Projection TV Testimonial [1:30]

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The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Phenomenal Projector!!

  • Incentivized
  • Verified Purchaser
  • My Best Buy® Member
  • Owned for 1 month

  We recently completed our basement and looking for a Short through projector, after reading tons of youtube videos and reviews finally decided to take this EPSON LS500 model, I was very happy that I made right decision also got this from Best Buy, I agree it is a bit pricey hence had to grab the 24 months no interest option but definitely worth the money. The setup was very easy, all we have to do is decide the length of projection you need and adjust the distance from the wall, 110” was sufficient for me, next adjust the image to have a perfect rectangle, last but not least had to adjust the sharpness of the image, i was really amazed of its brightness and clarity even in the afternoon, phenomenal!! We are projecting directly on the wall, there was no need of any special screen for this projector. We painted bright white on the wall which was more than enough to get a great clear picture. Also I connected my Samsung Q990C SoundBar(also bought from Best Buy) to Arc connection of this projector and it connected without any hiccups. I’m very satisfied with this projector and definitely recommend!!

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  Posted 2 years ago by Harry

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  4k Short-throw Excellence

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  Design: The Epson EH-LS500W is a straightforward classic short throw projector that draws its inspiration from straighter functional think tank ideas. The device color I have is the white version which is clean and sleek looking. The Placement of the lens is centered in the rectangle shaped box that serves purely to function with out being a center showpiece in your home entertainment setup which can be distracting when looking at it once you place it on your stand or entertainment center. The lens is big and looks massive popping out of the box, which can really detract from the overall elegance and flow of the piece if its being showcased in the entertainment center. Features: The connections are placed in front of the projector as to minimize the distance needed for cords due to it being a short throw. You will find two HDMI 2.0 connections, one with ARC, a USB connection for the optional Wi-Fi adapter, a stereo mini jack audio output, a network connection, and RS-232C for control. On the back side you have panel that hides access for USB to add a streaming stick or something to project media wirelessly on also houses an extra HDMI port in the small recess. I used it to add a chrome cast stick to project different pictures and VR from the Oculus. The biggest selling point of this projector is its short throw capabilities. The laser lighting is claimed to deliver a maximum light output of 4000 lumens. This is insanely bright lighting compared to other home entertainment devices which set it apart from the rest of the pack when measuring peak brightness. I tested and used this in a completely blacked out room. The brightness also lends well to rooms that are lit with lots of light sources and would still be capable of producing vivid and clear pictures. The 4000 lumens brightness is accompanied by an even bigger contrast ratio claim of 2,500,000:1. This means your picture will be extra clear, bright, and vivid in all aspects. Though these numbers will be reducing your overall lifespan of the bulb which has a lifespan around 20,000 hours, which can be extended if you use the eco-mode but will impact overall performance. Quality: The LS500W offers Pro-UHD 4K Enhanced Pixel Shifting’ technology, which isn’t true native 4K technology, rather its is boosting the pixel count to deliver 4K quality it relies on a trio of 1080p LCD imagers to which Epson applies its 4K PRO-UHD pixel-shifting and image processing. This doubles the number of on-screen pixels per frame to about half of what a full-4K projector can do. The LS500’s menus offer you the ability to change and alter the various picture adjustments. Picture presets include Cinema, Bright Cinema, Dynamic and Game modes, with the game mode reducing input lag without impacting picture quality at a drastic cost. The other two Cinema modes offer some flexibility for altering the projector’s pictures to accompany your different viewing environments in lighted or dark. The good aspect in one of the Cinema modes its reduces the laser light output to just around 50% of its maximum, by just delivering 1200 lumens versus the 4000-lumen max promise which will help in dark rooms but also increase the bulb life saving you money in the long run-on bulb replacements. You can even pump the laser output in 5% increments. But it also increases the operating noise level very much that can be distracting when viewing movies. You can also have 3D viewing with the LS500W but they do not include any glasses to view the content so that would be an additional cost and trying to find movies in 3D would be another barrier, but having the feature is good for those who invest in the 3D area. The sound speakers included are your run of the mill 2x 10watt speakers. If you are buying this device, you most likely have a home theater system or soundbar to accompany it. The speakers included are weak and offer very subpar performance and sound like speakers stuck in a well that really do not reflect the high-quality product producing the sound. But they are adequate at low volumes but lack the bass and high-quality movie theater sounds you will crave. Picture Quality: This is the meat and potatoes of the device and what I was most excited for about this product. The promise of 4K UHD with HDR10 had me excited especially from a short throw projector. The 4K does not disappoint, this is the true star of the projector. At first glimpse its sharp and crisp with details rich and vivid on the wall. When you are up close you can see a little hint of the pixel shift technology blurring the sharpness and crispness at times, but not enough to detract from the overall picture. The Black levels is always concerning with projectors. When it comes to dark movie scenes, they tend to look grey where they should look black when its brighter rooms. The colors lose some of their pop as well I noticed, but this is when I was approaching the max 130” image screen size. When I brought eh screen size down to around 100” things fell back in normal ranges of color and brightness and the vivid color scheme. This leads me to believe that the device short throw capabilities are being strained in its upper screen sizes which could cause uneven viewing enjoyment at larger sizes. Over the course of viewing movies and testing to see how the color representation translated, I never saw the green or yellowish hues on skin tones, they presented in uniform natural realistic skin tones which was refreshing to see such realistic vibrant colors coming through. You do not get the washed-out whited gloss over picture in the bright rooms thanks to the laser driven picture always delivering bright clear and crisp picture quality. Testing: I paired my LS500W with the Bose Soundbar 700 and Wireless subwoofer and wireless rear speakers. The test Environment was a blacked-out Room with Zero light at set the test screen size at 100”. This proved to be optimal settings and placed roughly 1.5 feet from the wall due to my layout. I used a PS5 and Xbox Series X as my gaming devices to test 4k gaming. First up was the Movie Avatar due to its bright and vivid colors that it uses. The first 10 minutes of the film were jaw dropping on the clarity and colors it produced. The blues and green foliage of the scenes just popped on the wall as the scenes projected. There was not any distinct coloring issues or motion blurring with the picture that was being produced. Pausing the screen, it was not distinguishable that the pixel shifting was causing any ill effects on the picture. The sharpness and clarity were very uniform throughout as well as the deep blacks. The blacks did not produce any greyness or washed-out aspects in darker nights scenes. The scene where they are walking at night and its lit up buy fire and tree sprits you could see every detail in the Cinema mode for dark rooms. Secondly, I tested Call of Duty Cold War, it registered 4k at 60hz through the Xbox and PS5. The systems allow for 120hz option, but the projector is limited to the HDMI 2.0 ports and do not have the bandwidth to produce 120hz. That was a shame to see as other traditional TV sets are offering this feature of HDMI 2.1 and beyond. Starting the Multiplayer matches it was quickly evident that the lag input was minimal thanks to the Game mode option on the LS500W. The picture and response were smooth and had noticeable transition issues projecting any visual fidelity issues. Gaming on 100” screen took some time to get used to as every detail is exceptionally large but offered clear visuals of players on other teams in often hard to see places on traditional tv sets that are usually less than an inch, were now almost 2-3 inches bigger and extremely easy to spot and take out. I did remove the motion blur effect in game to see how it would reproduce on the projector and safe to say it was crystal clear. The downside I did notice is during darker scenes in the game on campaign, you would get glimmers of some unbalanced whiteness. To offset this, going into the menu and altering the lumens to the 1200-4000 range fixed the issue and put back the colors and vibrant visuals you saw in movies. The HDR looks like HDR in the gaming and movies, the way it processes it gives the pictures a more realistic feel and look. Seeing the way lighting is impacted by the HDR was very welcoming and had a natural but high-quality look throughout the other movies tested. Gaming was hit or miss but I believe that was due more so in part thanks to the consoles needed patches to correct the way those systems process HDR in gaming. On the Xbox it did show up as HDR10 working and did not check off the HDR10 box. The projector is both HDR10 and HLG compatible and comes with Epson's excellent tone-mapping and 16-step HDR Setting brightness control. So, this really helps with all HDR content that is being displayed so no worries about HDR content! Normally you would see the 16 step HDR settings in very high-end devices which was a welcome treat for myself being a techie, the only draw back here is the color gamut. The full 10-bit HDR processing is on board to minimize banding, but the limitation here is in color gamut, which is only rated for Rec.709 and not the full DCI-P3 wide gamut. This was a little disappointing to find during my testing, but the full DCI-P3 matches the range of colors available in most 4K content we have available today on the market. The tradeoff is understandable with the 4000 lumens and the insane contrast level you are getting all in one package. Overall: I highly recommend this product! As you can see by my photos I was able to get some fantastic dark colors in a dark room setting on a fixed screen!

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  Posted 4 years ago by DocCupCake

• Rated 3 out of 5 stars

  It is nice and bright...

  • Incentivized
  • Verified Purchaser
  • My Best Buy® Member
  • Owned for 1 month

  This projector is super bright, and I can watch using a wall or a UST screen. The UST Screen makes it super nice, even in daylight. The projector just has nothing else going for it. It doesn’t have Bluetooth, no coaxial cord if you want to stream local channels without cable, no optical input, it's huge and has to sit 30" away from your wall/screen to project a 100" screen. (Measuring from the wall to the back of the projector @ 21" H.) It appears that the 3d only works for hdmi 1 or 2 devices, not the HDMI3 (the 3rd HDMI port is for the Android TV. I don’t have the choice turn on 3d serring unless I use HDMI 1 or 2. It would make a great home theater projector, but not very practical for a tv replacement, unless you only stream or play video games. My gut is telling me to return it, but I'm sitting here trying to make it work. I'm thinking of going back to bulbs with a 3d ready as they have many more hookup options.

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  Posted 2 years ago by GAGAL